Lissandra's Thoughts

Saturday, November 17, 2007

I must be missing something.

It is astounding and a wonder to me how rediculous some bootlickers can be.Whenever anyone in any blog, brings up the real conditions inside Cuba, there is always some nut out there that brings up the embargo as the end all reason for the inhuman conditions.

First off, why is the American Embargo in place? Well, contrary to most people’s belief, the American Embargo was not placed by the angry Cuban exile community in Miami. It was put in place long before there were any Cuban-American political officials, by the American government in response to the unlawful appropriations of American properties in Cuba. These properties were valued at 1 billion dollars in 1960, as of 1996 it was estimated to be 7.7 billion dollars, I can’t imagine what it would be worth today.

Through the years the embargo has been modified so that today what exists is a whisper of an embargo, basically prohibiting the extension of any credit by an American bank and The World Bank to the Cuban Government. Cuba can purchase all kinds of agricultural, and medical supplies among other thingsssss. Don’t take my word for it, visitTHIS site and you’ll see it for yourself.

These very same people that cry about how the situation in Cuba is like it is for Cubans because of the embargo fail to explain to me how the following is the fault of the embargo.

• Cubans not allowed on properties for foreigners, unless they work there.• Cubans not allowed to travel without expressed government permission.• Cubans not granted exit Visas when foreign countries have extended entrance visas to same individuals• Cubans not allowed in hospitals for foreigners.• Cubans not allowed to study what they want.• Cubans rotting in jail for having a different ideology than that of the government.• Cubans rotting in jail for writing news articles.• Cubans not allowed access to the internet.• All Cubans in general treated as second class citizens while foreigners are treated as first class citizens• Cuba doesn’t have more than one political party.

Tell me what any of those things have to do and how they’re related to the US embargo on the island. Now as for the food, lets review all the things purchased by Cuba from the US with regards to food.

Keep in mind these are values in the “thousands of dollars” so that when the number is 59,228, we multiply that value by 1,000 as in the case of meat and poultry. These numbers do nott include the items purchased from other countries or the 100,000 barrels of oil a day being imported to Cuba from Venezuela.

And here’s an EYE OPENER,here you'll see $7,000 in pleasure boats and motors last year, and under Toy, games, sporting goods you'll see $13,000. As far as I know, none of that is digestable. There are other curious items like these, you'll see.

Did you have a look see what interesting items have been purchase by the Caribbean crybabies? So what’s all the crying and bitching about on the part of the Cuban Government? It is about credit folks. Goods and products on credit that the Cuban Government has absolutely no plans in paying once it is given.

Cuba has one of the lowest country ratings in the world, barely ahead of Sudan, and Haiti. Euromoney Magazine rated Cuba the riskiest country to invest in out of a survey of 167 countries.

The Soviet Union tubed up to $4 billion dollars a year into Cuba before the Soviet collapse. The Cuban Government defaulted on most of its international debt in 1986 and does not have access to credit from international financial institutions like the World Bank, which means Havana must rely heavily on short-term loans to finance imports, chiefly food and fuel. Because of its poor credit rating, an $11 billion hard currency debt, and the risks associated with Cuban investment, interest rates have reportedly been as high as 22%. In 2002, citing chronic delinquencies and mounting short-term debts, Moody's lowered Cuba's credit rating to Caa1 -- "speculative grade, very poor." Dunn and Bradstreet rate Cuba as one of the riskiest economies in the world. You can read the above statedhere

Below a list of Cuba’s foreign debt:FOREIGN DEBT SNAPSHOT(All amounts are converted to U.S. dollars.)EUROPE: $10.9 billion. Paris Club creditors (Source: Banco Central de Cuba.) In 1986, Cuba suspended payments of the debt. Despite on-going negotiations, Cuba has yet to service its debt to the Club since issuing a moratorium in 1987.Eastern Europe: $2.2 billion.

Russia: Estimated at roughly $20 billion.Canada: $73 million (Excludes short and medium-term commercial debts to Canadian suppliers.)ASIAJapan: $1.7 billion (Japan is Cuba’s principal creditor, excluding the former Soviet Union.)China: $400 million.LATIN AMERICAArgentina: $1.58 billion. (Cuba’s second largest creditor behind Japan.)Mexico: $380 million.Chile: $20 million.Venezuela: $266 million. (Mostly in unpaid petroleum purchases, even under highly favorable terms.)South Africa: $85 millionFolks that is over 39 billiong dollors in debt!Now with all of this why should the US lift the embargo and extend Cuba any credit?

Thursday, November 15, 2007

GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO VOTE FOR FREE TUITION?

Well here is what a poll at NYU revealed: POLL . Am I in the Twilight Zone?? If this poll is acurate and 66% of our college students are ready to give up their RIGHT to vote in exchange for free tuition, we have got BIGGER problems than the war in Iraq or Iran and nuclear weapons. That's just my opinion.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

HISPANIC??

The police in Chandler Arizona are offering $25,000 reward for the help and capture of a suspected serial rapist, dubbed the "Chandler Rapist" . The suspect is described as Hispanic, 28 to 40 years old, short with a muscular build, dark hair and hazel or brown eyes.

Personally, everything else after the part of "Hispanic" is much more helpful than the word hispanic on its own. I don't have a problem with the police describing the guy as a hispanic male, as long as it comes with the rest of the description, as stated above, but in my town, that will not get you an arrest.

I don't know how it is out in Arizona, but where I live [Miami] most of the people are Hispanic. This being said, a white, black, brown, red, and olive skin person could fit that description fine. You see, having a Hispanic ethnicity doesn't guaranty your skin color. In essense, the Arizona police's description of the suspect, umbrellas every Hispanic, whether you're white or black. You can be 28 to 40, have a short muscular body with hazel to brown eyes and be white, black, grean, purple, and still be hispanic.

What I'm saying is that the "Hispanic" term is so broad, at least in my home town, it would get you nowhere fast when trying to catch a suspect. I think the Chandler Police Department should have included the color of the suspect's skin in their information report and not just the man's ethnicity, which I believe should very well be included in their report as that is another helpful detail in helping catch the suspect.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

PORQUE NO TE CALLAS?!?

I don't agree wiht most of the opinons of Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain, but I must congratulate the man for having called out the ape B/K/A Hugo Chavez at the Iberoamerican Summit in Chile yesterday, after the ape called Aznar the previous prime minister, a fascit. I love the way he said, "Mr. Chavz, Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish Citizens"

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Che Guevara was an international terrorist and mass murderer.During his vicious campaigns to impose communism on countries throughout Latin America, che Guevara trained and motivated the Castro regime's firing squads that executed thousands of men, women and children.This poster reveals the truth of this criminal's cruel, murderous hypocrisy and acknowledges his countless victims, known and unknown.All individuals used in this photo montage were murdered by che and the Castro regime.

To see the image that was created using the photos of the peolple he murdered CLICK HERE